Saturday, Feb. 17, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.
If there's one thing the National Basketball Association proved with its All-Star week, it's that Las Vegas is continuing to mature into a mainstream, all-American city. Even the NBA commissioner, David Stern, is talking about planting a team here.
So if the NBA can embrace Las Vegas, will politicians do the same?
Starting today and into next week, John, Barack and Hillary are flying into town - and not showing up anywhere on the Strip. John Edwards visits a union hall tonight on East Bonanza Road. Barack Obama visits the Clark County Government Center on Sunday. And Hillary Clinton visits Del Sol High School near Sunset Park on Wednesday.
It looks as if they're following the Democratic playbook on photo opportunities, which steers them clear of casinos that employ thousands of workers - and away from craps tables that might be viewed as offensive to much of Middle America.
In a booklet advising candidates where to press the flesh with voters - which always lend to photo ops - the Nevada Democratic Party makes no reference to Las Vegas' iconic images. Instead, it names one bar and 13 restaurants as "Clark County Hot Spots" that "are usually busy with locals."
None screams out, Vegas, baby!
The rationale for photographing candidates at cafes and restaurants, party operatives say, is that the Strip is saturated with tourists, not locals. But it could also send the message that the Las Vegas Strip, even to this day, is about as popular with politicians as a leper colony.
What are they afraid of?
Las Vegas, America's fastest-growing metropolitan area, is considered such a representative cross section of America that it is sought out as a place to conduct opinion polls and test marketing.
Party advice notwithstanding, some homegrown politicians comfortably troll the Strip for votes. They know that Nevadans won't be offended by the Strip's trappings.
Gary Gray, a longtime Democratic campaign organizer, remembers how Shelley Berkley, a onetime keno-runner-turned-casino executive, toured casinos to shake hands during her first congressional campaign, which he successfully ran.
"It takes us right back to 'Casablanca,' doesn't it?" Gray said, speaking to the hypocrisy by mimicking actor Claude Rains, who played the police prefect in the 1942 movie. "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!"
The point is, Gray said, "you always try to get the candidate or the campaign dollars where the voters are."
"And certainly, you have the Iowa or New Hampshire model of stopping by coffee shops or cafes, which is a good idea because candidates coming in from other states are familiar with that model, and know how to work it," he added. "But the casinos are also a voter-rich environment, especially if you go down into the Help's Halls."
That's the industry term for the spaces beneath the casino where the thousands of workers punch time clocks, grab lunch and take breaks.
Candidates in the casino bowels? "We'd love to have them," said Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM Mirage, the largest private employer in Clark County.
He said he tires of the national media's portrayal of Las Vegas as an American aberration. "The fact is, where you and I would see a high concentration of votes, they only see gambling iconography and service industry iconography, and to some, that's a negative."
People who work here and love the city, he added, "are just going to have to keep a stiff upper lip about it - and next time around, maybe we'll see a lot less of it."
The Clinton campaign won't avoid the Strip, spokesman Mo Elleithee promised. "We're going to campaign wherever Nevadans live and work."
Edwards' campaign spokeswoman Kate Bedingfeld said he "has spoken at union casinos and hotels in the past and will continue to visit them in the future to talk with Nevada workers about their concerns."
But it's not happening yet.
Maybe they have to warm up to the Strip.
Here are some places they might consider:
archive
